Monday, July 27, 2015

Hello family! It's about 5:30 am
here in the beautiful state of Missouri with partly clouded sky's and
about a 110 heat index. Over there is some road kill on the side of the
road, don't mind it, you will be seeing that every day of your life out
here! Over there you will see a guy with only one tooth walking his
dog. Oh! There he is right on schedule! The guy with the 12' lift on his pickup truck!

Can you tell that it's 5:30 AM? I'm in a fantastic mood right now! Why wouldn't I be? I'M A MISSIONARY!!

Sounds
like y'all are having some fun experiences with the cabin. I hope the guests will be more respectful about others property.

Well,
great news for this part of town! We had an amazing lesson with Dillon
and Daylin yesterday at the Historic Liberty Jail. Dillon is solid for
this Saturday!
We talked to him about receiving the Priesthood and that there is a
possibility of him baptizing Daylin in a week or two and they both liked
that idea. Daylin is coming right along and progressing very quickly.
This whole situation has been a little stressful with the time crunch
of Dillon leaving for college and same with Daylin, but the Lord has a
bigger plan for them. It has been amazing to see the Lord's hand in
Dillon's life. When we first met him he had didn't know how to pray and
he had no idea what repentance was. He was 20 years old and had not
repented before. He always told us about all this guilt he had and that
ever since he started praying it was leaving him. Elder Anderton and I
know that we didn't make this change in him at all. We were just the
vessels for the Lord to bring this message forth. At this lesson we
learned that Daylin was praying for Dillon to be in contact with Godly
men and her prayer was answered the next day with Elder Anderton and I
coming across him working on his Jeep. There are about 10 others in the
ward as well who have become good friends with Dillon.

Kristin is moving to California for sure and might drive through Utah. We will find out for sure probably tomorrow so I'll giver her your number Mom and maybe you guys can meet up for lunch somewhere!

We had a fantastic ward party on Friday!
That is where those pictures of the four of us missionaries with the
hats on came from (by text). We led the groups of pioneers around the field.
That was really fun and we also had one of our investigators show up to
it!

This week I was studying in John
6:5-14 about Jesus Christ feeding the 5,000 and had a completely
different outlook on what it means to me. We read in there about how
they only had 5 loves of bread and 2 fish but there was 5,000 to feed.
Rather than telling them to go and buy more, Jesus takes what is there,
blesses it, then gives it to the people. The moral that I learned was Andrew gave 100% of what he had, which he know wasn't enough to feed
the whole multitude, but he gave it all to Christ and through Christ it
was magnified to feed 5,000 people.

Here
is a story that our mission president sent us today. As a mission we
have been studying the Atonement in depth in the Book of Mormon.

From President Vest:

While
studying and pondering our atonement initiative, I came across the
following simple story that was shared by President Hinckley. It is
something of a parable. I hope it will be a reminder for us all.

“Years
ago there was a little one-room schoolhouse in the mountains of
Virginia where the boys were so rough that no teacher had been able to
handle them.

“A
young, inexperienced teacher applied, and the old director scanned him
and asked: ‘Young fellow, do you know that you are asking for an awful
beating? Every teacher that we have had here for years has had to take
one.’

“‘I will risk it,’ he replied.

“The
first day of school came, and the teacher appeared for duty. One big
fellow named Tom whispered: ‘I won’t need any help with this one. I can
lick him myself.’

“The
teacher said, ‘Good morning, boys, we have come to conduct school.’
They yelled and made fun at the top of their voices. ‘Now, I want a good
school, but I confess that I do not know how unless you help me.
Suppose we have a few rules. You tell me, and I will write them on the
blackboard.’

“‘Now,’
said the teacher, ‘a law is not good unless there is a penalty
attached. What shall we do with one who breaks the rules?’

“‘Beat him across the back ten times without his coat on,’ came the response from the class.

“‘That
is pretty severe, boys. Are you sure that you are ready to stand by
it?’ Another yelled, ‘I second the motion,’ and the teacher said, ‘All
right, we will live by them! Class, come to order!’

“In
a day or so, ‘Big Tom’ found that his lunch had been stolen. The thief
was located—a little hungry fellow, about ten years old. ‘We have found
the thief and he must be punished according to your rule—ten stripes
across the back. Jim, come up here!’ the teacher said.“The
little fellow, trembling, came up slowly with a big coat fastened up to
his neck and pleaded, ‘Teacher, you can lick me as hard as you like,
but please, don’t take my coat off!’“‘Take your coat off,’ the teacher said. ‘You helped make the rules!’

“‘Oh,
teacher, don’t make me!’ He began to unbutton, and what did the teacher
see? The boy had no shirt on, and revealed a bony little crippled body.

“‘How
can I whip this child?’ he thought. ‘But I must, I must do something if
I am to keep this school.’ Everything was quiet as death.

“‘How come you aren’t wearing a shirt, Jim?’

“He
replied, ‘My father died and my mother is very poor. I have only one
shirt and she is washing it today, and I wore my brother’s big coat to
keep me warm.’

“The
teacher, with rod in hand, hesitated. Just then ‘Big Tom’ jumped to his
feet and said, ‘Teacher, if you don’t object, I will take Jim’s licking
for him.’

“‘Very well, there is a certain law that one can become a substitute for another. Are you all agreed?’

“Off
came Tom’s coat, and after five strokes the rod broke! The teacher
bowed his head in his hands and thought, ‘How can I finish this awful
task?’ Then he heard the class sobbing, and what did he see? Little Jim
had reached up and caught Tom with both arms around his neck. ‘Tom, I’m
sorry that I stole your lunch, but I was awful hungry. Tom, I will love
you till I die for taking my licking for me! Yes, I will love you
forever!’”

To lift a phrase from this simple story, Jesus, my Redeemer, has taken “my licking for me” and yours for you.

Monday, July 20, 2015

We
had a fantastic week! Full of service, rain, and humidity! It is
getting hot over here and it is not fun with the humidity. Blegh!

Today is also my 11 month mark! Crazy!

Man, those chigger will get ya! I have quite a few chigger bites and they are itchy and last forever. Nasty little buggers.

We
had the opportunity to go on exchanges with the Elders that are serving
in Far West, Missouri. I love being able to go on exchanges as a
leader. It gives you the opportunity to set an example and to rely more
on the Lord. I would have to say that is one of my favorite things
about serving as a Zone Leader. After the exchange we stopped by the
temple sight and also a place called Eminence. I have some pictures to
send you, that place was amazing! The spirit was strong there and you
knew it was sacred ground. Fan fact for ya... The grounds where the
Far West temple sight is located used to be a farmers field. The farmer
never ripped out the stones. He would just lift up his blades and
continue right on over them.

We
also got to go with Kristin to the temple this week! That was
fantastic. It was the first time I have been able to go with a recent
convert. She loved it! We have a member who is hopefully going to go
with her again before she leaves.

Our investigator Dillon is on date to be baptized on August 1st!
We are so excited for him. He has changed so much through the
atonement. It has been so cool to see the man he is becoming. We
continue to work out with him in the mornings and he is progressing
faster than ever. He leaves for college on August 10th so he wants to do it before then.

I wanted to share something cool with you that I read this week. Haggai 1:6-7.

6
Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough;
ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is
none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag
with holes.

7 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways."

Are
we filling our time with meaningful activities that will benefit our
life's for the eternities? Or are we just putting our wedges into a bag
of holes to be lost and forgotten? I love the last phrase, "consider
your ways." Something that is thought provoking.

Love you,

Elder Shoemaker

ps. Will you send me pictures of the treehouse? I have people wanting to see pictures of it all the time.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

This
has been one fantastic week! Kristin was baptized! She is a
perfect example of how the church can make good people better. It has
been so cool to watch her transition from when I first met her to now. I
had the wonderful opportunity to baptize her this past Saturday
and what an amazing experience that was. That was the first time I
have been able to perform the ordinance and the spirit was so strong.
Memories of my own baptism flooded my mind as I was in the font. Elder
Anderton was able to confirm her in church the following day. We got
news that Kristin will be moving to California in about 3 weeks, which
stinks, but it is on the Lords timing. She is moving to be with her
kids so it is for a good reason. We went to the temple with her Monday and Bishop Walker is hoping to get her in for her Patriarchal
blessing before she leaves! Kristin has been such a miracle and there
is a tangible light difference and counts once about her!

That is why this email is coming in on Tuesday, because we went to the temple Monday to do a session and then do baptisms with her that night so we had to swap our p-day.

We
had such a once in a life time opportunity to give a blessing to a non
member Catholic boy this week. There is a huge long story behind this....that
there isn't enough time to type it or tell it. This is a story I would
rather share in person anyway. It was so long that I typed it up on the
computer and then glued the 3 page story into my journal rather than writing it. This is one of those stories you will have to ask me about
when I get home. The biggest faith building experience for me and a
huge testimony builder in the power of the Priesthood!

Funny
story... We were doing service for a member who was having us tear up
his deck around his pool because it was all rotted and he was selling
his pool so they needed it gone. We had torn up all the deck so we were
working on all the side railing. This is a 20 year old deck that has
been in Missouri humidity so it is pretty rotten! Elder Anderton was
holding onto a 4x4 about 4 feet off the ground rocking back and forth
trying to get it to come loose. I look over at him and I hear a big
crack! The 4x4 snaps in half and he goes flying backwards. His legs
shot straight up and he fell flat on his back with the 4x4 smacking his
chest right after he landed! I was laughing so hard that I couldn't stay
standing up! He ended up being just fine so no worries there.

We
really only have about 3 solid people we are currently teaching and two
of them are Dillon and Daylin. They are boyfriend and girlfriend and
they both are 20. Really cool how we are getting in to teach with
Dillon lately! Bishop Walker is so inspired and such a hard worker. We
go and work out with him in the morning and Dillon is a foot ball
player for a college here in Missouri. Bishop invited him to come work
out with us in the morning and he comes! We have taught him almost
every day this past week in Bishops gym after a hard work out. We also
were able to teach Dillon and Daylin together yesterday which was great.
You know that you are following the spirit when you go into a lesson
planning on teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ (through Christ we can
be cleared from sin, faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost,
and endure to the end) and the lesson ends up on being how faith leads
us to follow the word of wisdom. The lesson went great! :-)

Here is one of my favorite quotes,

"Being humble isn't thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less."

Here is another one to really think about as well.

"We are not obedient because we are blind, we are obedient because we can see."

- President Boyd K. Packer

I'm
so very grateful for this amazing opportunity I have had to be here in
the Missouri, Independence Mission! I am learning so much about the
Lord and have grown to love and appreciate him more. I invite you all
to take some time every day this week to really study the Saviors
atonement and write down what you learn. It has helped me everyday as I
have been able to look back and see what I have learned.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA LIN!!!!!

HAPPY WEDDING ABBIE!

Love you all!

Elder Shoemaker

Here
are some pictures of Kristin and her baptism. You can notice a tangible light
difference in her countenance! She is such an amazing woman. :-)

Here are her children

Lauren, Livi, and Will

Will is just like Jackson! (Elder Shoemaker's cousin) He is a hilarious kid.

Monday, July 6, 2015

This one won't be as long because I don't have to much time today, sorry!

I
wanted to share a principle that our bishop has instilled in us every
day since I've been here. He always says the, "success breeds success."
I love how true this is! If you succeed, those around you will
gradually be driven to succeed as well.

We
have had some solid meetings with Kristin this week! We had one lesson
with her where we were able to bring 3 members to it. We also had one
at the Johnson's home (a member). Her baptism is this Saturday!! She asked me to baptize her and Elder Anderton will be confirming her on Sunday.
We are so excited! She has progressed so much! She already has a
calling as a personal fitness specialist and they are working on a
visiting teaching route for her. The sisters in our ward have dinner
with her on Tuesday.
She is such an amazing woman and has changed for the better so
quickly. She will be an amazing member and one who will change the
lives of many forever!

We
had a great MLC (mission leadership counsel) this past week. The
mission has taken a big down turn on all the key indicators and baptisms
this year. The whole mission fasted for the MLC to be able to find a
solution to this problem. We came up with a new initiative to study the atonement in the BOM everyday and write down what the scripture means to
us and what we are going to change because because of that scripture.
We are also really trying to work with the members a lot more so that
when we leave the missionary work doesn't stop, but continues.

I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Shoemaker

Ps. Thank you for the pictures and videos you sent! Looks like you having a great summer. :-)